


The One With All The Candy

by Methoxyethane



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Baked Goods, Baker Keith, Christmas, M/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-05-12 00:11:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19217662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Methoxyethane/pseuds/Methoxyethane
Summary: In which Keith lovingly makes candy by hand. Too much candy.





	The One With All The Candy

It had begun back in high school. Keith and Lance had been friends back then but not dating quite yet, despite what Keith felt like was an absurd amount of flirting while they hung out with all their friends. So just before Valentine’s day of junior year, he came to a decision. He was going to give Lance chocolates, and if it went badly they could play it off as a joke. And if it went well, Keith would like... Do something crazy like use the chocolates to confess his feelings.

But the thing is, he’d liked Lance so much and for so long, a year and a half of pent up longing for the other boy (not including the three years of middle school where they still hated each other and Keith hadn’t known he was gay yet) that was just too much to convey through mere storeboguht candies.

Keith had to go the extra mile. He needed to make the chocolate he was giving Lance himself, by hand, to be able to pour in all of the goddamned FEELINGS he had right into the fucking batter so Lance could TASTE his love.

Or - his crush, or whatever. All that mattered now was that Keith had two days to learn how to make chocolates from scratch and give them to Lance, and as of right now he had zero experience in baking or sweet making of any kind, and barely any knowledge in even basic cooking.

But that was okay. He was determined, and had internet access, and those were the only two things that mattered, he was sure of it.

(Those were not the only two things that mattered.) 

So. The first attempt… had not gone well. He hadn’t known what a double boiler was and not not only burned all his base ingredients, but had nearly started a fire on the stove.

Attempt two had STILL been burned but not as badly, all the chocolates coming out harder than bricks and weirdly impossible to melt. The third batch he’d overcompensated for the heat and ended up with soft, gelatinous chocolates that refused to settle into any earthly shape.

It was the fourth batch that finally turned out. They looked and smelled perfect, and more importantly he was out of time and ingredients and these were the only ones that looked edible by any human standards whatsoever. These were the chocolates he was going to give to Lance today.

He’d presented his boyfriend-to-be with the handmade candies, heartbeat trilling in excitement as he waited for Lance’s reaction. Lance had smiled, told him they were the best chocolates he’d ever eaten, and they’d started going out officially that very night.

Being able to make Lance smile like that, with the hard work he’d done with his bare hands… it felt really good. It made Keith want to bake even more for Lance, to be able to cook all sorts of delicious foods that would make Lance smile the way those first chocolates had.

And so, a few weeks later, he’d baked cookies for him. He’d added too much sugar and they’d sort of melted into weird burned puddles of cookie, but nonetheless Lance ate everyone like they were laced with addictives. 

He’d made a cake next, an it was ugly because he’d frosted it too early before it was cool, and he hadn’t had real buttermilk so he’d had to add vinegar to regular milk and the cake had smelled just a little bit like pickles because of it. But once again Lance had treated it like it was the finest delicacies he’d ever been presented with and it made Keith want to tackle him to the ground with kisses.

Because you see, the thing was? Keith knew his cooking was terrible. He’d known the entire time, everything he made always tasted just a title bit off. But that was because he didn’t know what he was doing yet, and the more he learned the more he’d make Lance really and truly happy eating the things Keith baked for him.

It did work, by the way. It took months and years of work, but Keith did get good at baking. So good, in fact, he was currently head patisserie at a cafe and sweets store in the city. He didn’t own the business but he didn’t need to, he was happy as long as someone let him bake delicious things for people.

With the pay of that steady job he and Lance - no longer his boyfriend, but his fiancé now - were able to move into a better apartment building, cleaner and closer to both of their jobs. They hadn’t made any new friends in the building yet but Keith had a plan to fix that already in motion.

It was Christmas time, and that meant it was peak candy season. And it was also the only season where it was socially acceptable and not a little bit creepy to give out candy to all of your neighbors and coworkers, and therefore Keith’s season to shine.

You see, with his father dying in that fire and his mother always off in the Air Force doing army things, Keith had never liked Christmas as a kid. It was the loneliest time of year for a kid with no parents, and he had used to despise it. All the way up until Lance, who was so full of holiday spirit he unironically owned a sweater with lights on it and could sing Christmas carols without looking up the lyrics.

It was impossible not to get sucked into his holiday cheer, and so Keith had started loving Christmas, too. And with his love and his new environment he was hoping to start a brand new tradition, one involving his very specific skill set.

Keith was going to make candies for his neighbors. He’d set a basket outside the door full of wrapped chocolates and a sign wishing everyone Happy Holidays, and hopefully people would understand that the candy was safe to eat and take a piece for themselves, thereby finding out how awesome Keith is at baking and feel the need to pass on the goodwill to others, or something. 

Keith wasn’t sure the details. He just knew if there was one way to make friends it was buying them off with candy. It had gotten him a boyfriend and it had gotten him a job, and it would work now.

He knew exactly what to make, too - his specialty was chocolate covered candies, and he was glowing to make the entire floor of his building some truffles. They sounded more complicated than they actually were to make, as long as one knew exactly what they were doing.

First, make the fillings, preferably a day in advance of the chocolate dipping sauce. Cream the butter in a mixing bowl, while a separate bowl combines the cocoa and sugar. Add to the butter alternate with the whipping cream, blend well and chill until firm.

Once chilled, shape into candy shapes like balls and hearts and little rectangles. Put back in the fridge until tomorrow, when you’ve got the chocolate dipping sauce ready.

For the sauce, it’s vital to make sure no water gets anywhere near it while it’s in liquid form, or else your chocolate will thicken, tighten, and become grainy, which is gross. Dip the fillings into the sauce with a fondue or table fork, set on wax paper.

Easy as that. Why he’d gotten it wrong so many times, he’d never know now.

So he set them out in their basket all wrapped in wax papers and tied off with little goddamned bows, because Keith was a professional and everything he did was perfect all the way down to the wrapper.

At first he was a little afraid no one would take them, but that was a fear quickly assuaged when they all disappeared on the first day. Keith was eager to set out more, but he didn’t quite have time that day to go through the entire process over again, not even to start the batter that night.

At about one in the morning, there was a knock on their door. Lace opened it with a frazzled frown with Keith right behind him, both of them looking in the face of a neighbor Keith thinks he’d seen once in passing.

“Hey, uh,” the guy said, “You got any more of those chocolates?”

Having been in bed, Keith scowled at him, ready to slam the door. “Sorry,” Lance yawned. “We ran out, you must have missed them.”

“Aw man, are you gonna make any more?” The guy at the door asked eagerly, not seeming to care he was being a nuisance. “Those things were so good, like little drops of heaven.”

And now, if there was one thing that could get to Keith, it was compliments on his baking. He had worked damned had to get as good as he had at something which he had no natural talent, and he was proud of how far he’d come. 

“Heaven you say?” Keith said, shuffling into the doorway ahead of Lance. “I could make some more in the morning.”

The guy grinned and thanked him. Lance buried his face in his hands.

It would have been bad enough if that were the only time it happened. Another two days to give Keith enough time to bake them and the neighbors enough time to raid them, and there was another knock on the door.

Which Keith wouldn’t have minded as much, had it not been when Shiro and his husband were over for dinner. But it was what it was, and a pair of siblings greeted Keith with smiles when he opened the door.

“Hello sir,” the boy started.

“Do you have more of those chocolates?” His sister interrupted. 

“I don’t,” Keith said, shaking his head. “I already made two batches and both ran out, sorry.”

“Damn,” one of them cursed, as the two siblings looked at each other. “That’s really too bad, those things were so good, like… words can’t even describe them.”

“Some people may have said,” Keith felt his pride swell up, and he leaned against the doorframe to cover his fidgeting. “That they tasted like little drops of heaven.”

“It’s just such a shame,” the boy said, shaking his head. “We told our relatives about them, and now we won’t be able to show them what we were talking about when they come over for Christmas.”

“I mean,” Keith scratched the back of his neck. “I guess I could make one more batch. If no one minds waiting.” He’d just make a double batch in advance this time. Maybe even triple.

“You,” Lance accused when the door closed. “Are making even MORE candy? You know you’re not getting paid for this. You don’t need to waste any more hours on these people.”

“But…” Keith glanced back at the door, posture turning inward like a wilting flower. “But they like them so much! How can I say no?”

“You say no to everyone all the time!” Lance argued back. “Wait a minute… You don’t meant they like THEM. You mean they like YOU, don’t you? Did you just learn to bake so people would like you?”

“Well it works! It got me a job and a boyfriend, why should it stop working now?”

Lance just rolled his eyes. “Just don’t break your back over these people, they don’t owe you anything.”

Yeah right. Keith knew exactly what he was doing.

The triple batch was a bad idea. Even worse was when the neighbors started smelling the chocolate he was making and ponding on the door demanding to know if they were ready yet, one by one until there was an entire crowd of people outside the door waiting for chocolates that still had about a half hour to settle before they were done. 

And that was just the ones that were done. Keith was still frantically dipping hurriedly shaped balls of truffle filling into the chocolate and fishing them out with his fork when Lance came home from work, shoving neighbors out of the way to get inside his own doorway.

When he saw Keith, chocolate coating him from his hair down to his apron, Lance put his foot down.

“Alright that’s it, that’s enough! Have you people no shame?” He gestured wildly to Keith, the frazzled hair, the bags under his eyes. “LOOK at him! You’ve ruined a perfectly good boyfriend!”

Scowling at the crowd, he continued in a decisive and manly tone that made Keith remember why exactly, he was marrying this man. “He was making this candy for you people out of the goodness of his own heart, and do you know why? Because he was hoping it would bring people together and he’d get to know everyone a little better. And do any of you people even know his name?!”

The crowd, now unsettled, muttered amongst themselves. “Candy guy?” One person said helplessly.

“That’s it, get out!” Lance said, waving his arms to shoo everyone away. “Everyone leaves, you’ve ruined it! You’ve ruined it and no one gets any more candy!”

Now successfully humbled, the crowd dispersed, slowly wandering back to their own apartments. Closing the door, Keith turned to Lance and gave him a big, grateful smile. “Thank you, Lance. I shouldn’t have let things get so out of hand.”

“It’s okay, babe,” Lance said, dragging Keith into a light hug and rubbing his arms. “I know what you’re like when you get obsessive about baking, and that you get a little crazy when it comes to positive reinforcement.”

“They just kept saying such nice things,” Keith said weakly.

“You’re adorable and I love you, it you really need to learn how reign in the crazy, sweetie.”

“Never,” Keith denied. “Being crazy is what got me you.”

He leaned in for a kiss, which Lance returned with a quiet laugh.

So, that was very nearly the end of it.

But two days later Keith came home from work to find three faces he already recognized waiting for him at the door.

“Oh, hi, uh, Sir?” The first man said apologetically. “I’m Hunk Garret, I live in 23C. You may remember me as the uh, guy who knocked on your door at like, the middle of the night?”

“I do,” Keith confirmed flatly.

“I um, came to apologize,” he laughed, scratching the back of his head. “I’ve been working really odd hours at this engineering project me and the guys are stuck on, and had no idea how late it was when I came over until it was too late.”

“And after your husband there chewed us out,” the smaller of the two blonde siblings said. “We realized we probably hadn’t been the first people knocking on the door asking for free handouts.”

“We just liked the candy so much, we had no idea we were being such…” He brother trailed off. 

“Dicks,” Hunk finished.

“We’re Matt and Pidge, by the way,” the taller of the blonde siblings said. And the three of us got together and, um.”

For the first time, Keith noticed that they were holding a pink box. “We figured since you made candy you must like sweets, so…” 

Keith glanced down at the lid of the box, and burst out laughing.

They had just bought him a cake from the very bakery he worked at. They were giving him something he’d made with his own hands, and had no idea.

“Why don’t you guys come on in,” Keith invited. “We can share it.”

(The End)

**Author's Note:**

> If you coulnd’t tell, based loosely off that one Friends episode.


End file.
